September 2022 – News and Updates
Dear friends,
Please read below for the Free Yezidi Foundation's news and updates for the month of September.
FYF MEETS WITH FRENCH INVESTIGATIVE JUDGES
On 29 September the Free Yezidi Foundation and legal representatives met with two French investigative judges. FYF has been accepted as a partie civile in the landmark criminal case against Lafarge. FYF will be submitting confidential documents and documents open to the public.
At this meeting, FYF submitted a document which can be viewed in English or in French on our website. FYF is grateful to its legal representative in France, Ms. Clemence Bectarte, and to esteemed international human rights lawyers, Ms. Patricia Viseur Sellers and Ms. Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, for their assistance in preparing for the meeting and composing this document.
FYF AND IOM-IRAQ CONDUCT MEETING WITH MALE YEZIDI SURVIVORS
Male Yezidi survivors have suffered enormously through in the Yezidi genocide, and yet their plight and their needs have often been neglected. FYF and a number of other actors are seeking to prioritize their well-being and ensure they benefit from the provisions included in the Yezidi Survivors' Law, which includes provisions for survivors who were abducted as children. FYF was grateful to partner with IOM to help ensure this category of survivors are also informed of their rights and the benefits to which they are entitled.
YEZIDIS LIBERATED FROM AL-HOL CAMP, SYRIA
Many ISIS members who were captured alive are currently held by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Northeast Syria. This includes male and female ISIS members. One notorious detention camp, Al-Hol, currently holds about 56,000 female ISIS members and affiliates, along with their children. Yezidi captives were enslaved by both male and female ISIS members, and it is known that some missing Yezidis remain held by ISIS in Syria and Turkey. This month, SDF forces conducted a series of raids in Al-Hol camp, liberating several Yezidi women. FYF expressed outrage that Yezidis remain held by female ISIS members, even in detention centers, more than eight years after the Yezidi Genocide began in 2014.
MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR THREE-YEAR OLD MARIA
FYF was asked to help support a crowdfunding effort for Maria, a three-year old Yezidi child with an aggressive tumor. Doctors in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are not able to operate safely to remove the tumor. Activists and Maria's family worked with FYF to collect funds from around the world. In the first disbursement, FYF crowdfunded $3,131 which was signed and hand-delivered to Maria's father. FYF has just received a further deposit of just over $7000. 100% of the proceeds go to Maria's family, which will help them travel abroad and pay for the medical treatment. We are optimistic that the family's goal will be reached. Thanks to those of you who have helped provide life-saving medical support for young Maria, and thanks to Yezidi activist Murad Ismael for spurring this humanitarian effort.
FYF CONTRIBUTES TO A PLAY IN NETHERLANDS
FYF is supporting a play in the Netherlands that focuses on the plight of Yezidis and the aftermath of the Yezidi Genocide. Toneel Groep Maastricht commissioned handcrafted carpets from the FYF Enterprise & Training Center as backdrops for the play, and traveled to Khanke to purchase them and meet with the Yezidi community in Iraq. The group is committed to sharing the story of Yezidi suffering in the Netherlands, and we commend them for this effort. More information and ticket registration can be found here. Previously, a Dutch female ISIS accomplice wrote a book and was featured in a public play in the Netherlands, to the consternation of FYF and the Yezidi community. We are pleased to now see a theatrical representation of the Yezidi community that suffered from the atrocities committed by ISIS.
DID YOU KNOW?
Last month we launched an initiative in which friends all over the world can fund a displaced Yezidi child's birthday. Most Yezidi children have been deprived of childhood innocence and happiness since the Yezidi Genocide began in 2014. Thanks to your generosity, we have enough funds for 28 less fortunate Yezidi children to hold birthday parties, in each case inviting ten friends or family members. Here is a photo from the first such donor-funded party. If you would like to participate, click here. Thank you for supporting Yezidi children!
Thank you all, as always,?for your steadfast support of FYF and the Yezidi community.
Sincerely,
Pari Ibrahim, Executive Director, Free Yezidi Foundation